The Patrick Administration announced Friday that it has finalized regulations will that require the separation of food waste from the primary waste stream.
Come October 1, Massachusetts is scheduled to become the first state to require organic food waste be taken to a composting or anaerobic digest (AD) facility rather than a landfill. The implementation date has been pushed back from July 1 to ensure businesses have enough time to comply, said Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Ed Coletta.
The law will apply to all institutions that generate more than one ton of waste per week, or about 1,700 hospitals, hotels, supermarkets and large restaurants across the commonwealth. Roughly 850 of these entities are already taking part of their food waste some place other than a landfill, John Fischer, commercial waste recycling chief for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said in November.
The commonwealth is providing technical assistance and up to $1 million in grants to ensure that there sufficient composting and AD facilities to manage the material resulting from the ban.
“Through (the ban), we will take another step closer toward achieving our…goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050,” said Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, chair of the joint committee on environment, natural resources and agriculture.
